Thursday, January 10, 2008

But speaking of exercise in the cold, good news for Cross-Country lovers is that Kenenisa Bekele, five-times world champion (but deposed by Zersenay Tadese last year in the heat in Mombasa) will run in this year's World X-Country Champs in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 30 March this year.

The relevance of the reference to the cold is of course that Bekele came unstuck in incredibly hot and humid conditions in Kenya last year. In fact, in a news article about his decision to run in the World Champs in Edinburgh, he said:

"Winning for a sixth time means very much to me and I feel the conditions in Edinburgh will suit me much more than they did last year."

So a rematch of the race in Mombasa is on the cards, where Tadese became Eritrea's first ever world champion. I'm a fan of Tadese's, so I look forward to this clash.

But the even better news for Cross-country lovers is that we won't even have to wait until the end of March to see these two clash - they are actually racing one another this weekend, in the BUPA Great Edinburgh Cross Country run. Conditions will be even colder now than in March later this year, and so Bekele will certainly have nothing to fear - from the weather, anyway!

What is interesting, however, is that in this Olympic year, with all the talk about the heat and humidity in Beijing, Bekele is clearly not enamoured of running in the heat. He didn't enjoy Osaka last year, and obviously didn't enjoy Mombasa. Beijing threatens to be worse than Osaka, and so his preparations, and possibly his approach to the race are going to have to be more positive than what seems to the case. Obviously, he'll know this and should prepare accordingly, but I have seen quotes from Tadese where he says he is happy in the heat - the above quote from Bekele suggests he is not. He may yet find enjoyment in Beijing, but it will be a great race. As will the two previews we'll get over the country earlier this year...we'll bring you that result on the weekend!

very interesting. I look forward to reading more about exercises in the cold.

Out here in California, its not that bad. You can bike and run outdoors pretty much most of the year and use the indoors on days it rains. I'm going to be spending a large part of the winter in cold Buffalo. When I first arrived in the northeast, and saw a woman run after a snow storm, I thought she was crazy. Now, I seem to have switched camps and cannot imagine letting the weather get in the way. Geez, how perspectives change in life.

In terms of suggestions for future topics - I've always wanted to know about VO2 max : what really does it represent in the body. Is it a genetic limitation, is it a physical limitation (absorption of oxygen limited by surface area within the lungs) or does it represent something else. I'm a pretty slow athlete (10 min/mile for long runs and always wonder if in addition to working on economy, can I also improve my VO2 max ? Would training ever help me reach a 6 min mile or do I have to realign my goals to simply attain my VO2 max speeds for extended durations (which a rough estimate is around 7:30 to 7:40 per mile)

Another question is about comparison between athletes. I have a friend who is an excellent swimmer, much faster than I am (almost by 12 minutes a mile). However, his running and cycling pace are comparable, almost neck to neck. I was reading your articles on running economy where it mention that regardless of your VO2 max, you always consume about the same amount of oxygen when running a mile (around 200 ml/kig/mile in trained elite). Does this concept also apply to swimming and cycling - (and other exercises) ?

Coming back to the comparison, since he is a better swimmer, does it imply that he has a better VO2 max ? If so, then why are his paces similar to mine in cyclnig and running ? Should he not find it easier to bike and run at a faster pace than mine ?

Ah, yes, the joys of the northern hemisphere winters! I have never personally experienced anything like that, but on Wednesday next week, I head off to London and then Chicago and so I have a feeling I'll be able to relate very soon! Good luck with the race and enjoy the elite guys racing - we'll post a results roundup on the blog on Sat/Sun, so if you have any pics or insights, feel free to send them in and we'll get it up!

And then to Outdoor Enthusiast, thanks for the suggestion. We kind of touched on VO2max when we did our series on Running Economy (check the post from the first week of December). But we didn't really go into too much detail and so it is a subject I think we'll tackle over the coming weeks (maybe months - there's so much good stuff to write!).

Just to answer your question about swimming: Swimming is so much about efficiency through the water. I know a research who has studied swimming extensively and his opinion is that before you can even think about swimming competitively, you have to "swim like a fish", were his words. So two athletes with similar physiology might be completely mismatched in the pool because one is a fish, the other is not!

Seriously, though, it has a lot to do with movement through the water, and if you ever watch an elite swimmer compared to an average, club level one, you see the difference instantly.

And then lastly, on the VO2max, there's a ceiling to how much you can improve your VO2max, but to say that it's 10% or 20% would be a little hazardous. It depends on the person, their history of training, the training they do etc. But the initial responses to training will be increases in VO2 max as well as economy of running. But then there are specific things you might do later on in the training cycle, like the interval sessions, speed work that will help your running, mostly as a function of neuromuscular and metabolic adaptations.

I actually think the series that would capture this very nicely would be one on "The response of the human to training - metabolic, cardiovascular, respiratory, neuromuscular". That would encompass VO2max, metabolism and lactate, carbohydrate, fluid regulation and dehydration, running economy, everything....

In fact, one could write a book about that, and it'd be the book of "everything"!

Bekele - Tadese = 1-0 Guess the party is going to be here tonight ;-)! Still, Beijing is going to be a complete different story , but i'm still hoping for three straight wins for Bekele !@ Outdoor enthausiast: You can have a great Vo2max but still be a poor runner. the problem with Vo2max is that it doesn't tell a lot and does a poor job at predicting results, it's just not specific enough , (running) economy and lactate threshold are much better indicators ....

So today in Edinburgh was a beautiful day. Cold and frosty but clear and crisp with no wind or rain. Conditions were fantastic.

I did the 5k in just over 30 minutes which was Ok for me - it sounds slow but there is a huge hill in there and the last time I ran a 5K was a year ago in this race (I usually do lots of sprints / circuits and weights)

The X countries were fantastic to watch. Hard to believe how fast these guys run. And their support was amazing.

The scenery was amazing too - the sun just peaking over the small mountain of Arthur's Seat and the grass all white with the winter frost.

Great victories for Bekele, Burka and Baddely.

There are a few photos here, including one of the 5k course / fun run that I did.

Jonathan Dugas, PhDCurrent residence:Chicago, USAEmployment: Director of Clinical Development, The Vitality GroupResearch interests: Temperature regulation and exercise performance, with a special emphasis on how fluid ingestion affects those two things. In addition, the effects of exercise on health improvement and risk modification in large populationsSports interests: Cycling, running, triathlon, endurance sports

Full discolusre:The views expressed on this site are not those of the University of Cape Town (UCT), the Sports Science Institute of SA (SSISA), The Vitality Group, or Discovery Holdings.